To have Johann Sebastian
Bach as your father and Georg Philipp
Telemann as one of your godparents
is, musically speaking, to begin life
quite exceptionally well supplied
with father figures. For musicologists
of a Freudian persuasion his relationship
with those ‘fathers’ is a fruitful
field for speculation, bound up, they
would have us believe, with his rejection
of many aspects of his father’s musical
language - notably the fascination
with counterpoint - and his widely
recognised importance as a key figure
in the transitional period which links
and separates the Baroque and the
Classical. The clash between the old
and the new, between the conservative
elements in his music - which he never
completely lost - and his impulse
towards innovation constitute an important
dimension in C.P.E. Bach’s achievement
as a composer.

One obvious – if
minor – area in which such a musical
tug of war finds expression is in
his writing for the viola da gamba.
The first two of these pieces were
written in 1745-46, while Bach was
court harpsichordist at the Berlin
court of Frederick the Great. Frederick’s
court was relatively conservative
in its tastes, which was one reason
for Bach’s dissatisfaction there;
from at least 1750 he was applying
for positions elsewhere. By the 1740s
the viola da gamba has passed the
zenith of its popularity and fashionability.
A few players – such as Carl Friedrich
Abel – would continue to make careers
on the instrument until late in the
century, but they were exceptions
to the larger pattern. Frederick was
evidently still a lover of the instrument,
because in 1741 he added Ludwig Christian
Hesse (1716-1772) to the roster of
his court musicians. The death - at
least temporarily - of the viola da
gamba is perhaps neatly symbolised
in Hesse’s eventual fate. He was later
appointed gamba teacher to Frederick’s
successor, Friedrich William II, who
then discovered that he much preferred
the cello. It was presumably for Hesse
that Bach wrote the three pieces heard
on the present disc.

The Sonata in C major
is a pleasant enough piece, though
one wonders how fully Bach’s mind
and heart were engaged in the exercise.
There is an air of routine to a good
deal of the writing. The D major sonata
is a more individual, more inventive
piece. The opening adagio is graceful
and somewhat grave - but never ponderous
- and invites the performer to improvise
a closing cadenza. The central allegro
is vigorous, even passionate, and
makes considerable demands in the
soloist’s technique, full as it is
of jumps and arpeggios. The closing
arioso is attractively melodic and
richly expressive, with Bach’s writing
making full use of both top and bottom
of the instrument. The interesting
G minor sonata has often been played
on the viola and, as here, on the
cello. And that, indeed, brings me
to my one substantial reservation
about the disc.

Dmitry Kouzov is
a very impressive cellist and throughout
he is very skilfully accompanied by
Peter Laul. But – and it is a big
but – the cello really isn’t the right
instrument for this music. Or, more
precisely, it cannot help but change
the nature of the music. The weight
of sound isn’t fully appropriate,
the colours of the instrument are
not those of the viola da gamba. We
get, therefore, the structure of the
works and, to a great extent, their
lines, but we lose out on the textures
and masses of the music. If this doesn’t
trouble you then the recording can
be recommended – these are good performances.
But it isn’t, I think, mere ‘authentic’
pedantry to feel that the music simply
sounds better, more ‘natural’, played
on the instrument for which it was
written. If you share that feeling
then you will be better served by,
say the recording of the same three
sonatas by Paolo Pandolfo (viola da
gamba) and Rinaldo Alessandrini (harpsichord),
formerly on Tactus and now reissued
by Brilliant Classics (93362).

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